‘Crucify Him’

Sermon John 18:28-19:16 March 30, 2018 Good Friday Community Service The Passion of Christ-The Arrest

‘Crucify Him’

On this Good Friday we come mournfully as we remember the events of today 2000 years ago. On this day we recognize the darkness that surrounds the story of our Lord. It is dark day, a day where dark memories return to us. We will not pretend the darkness does not exist. Darkness was with the world on that day of trial. Darkness took hold of the people, the leaders, the faithful, the ordinary, the crowds, and even the silent ones. We observe the story as it unravels and can’t imagine how a people could become so evil toward our Savior. We need this story of the crowd, of the darkness, of the power to turn our backs on those who would save us. We need this story because we repeat it over and over again. The dark days of Good Friday continue. We condemn our Lord over and over again. Year after year.

You see the power of a crowd to praise or curse is amazing. We are a people who loves to cheer and jeer. Let me share how well we are doing this. How many of you are sports fans? How many of you love to go to games? How many of you are awesome super fans?

I’m going to ask each of you to become a fan. On this side I want you to cheer ‘Go Blue’. On this side I want you to cheer ‘Go Red’. So let’s give a little competition now, who can cheer the loudest. Alright red and Blue team. You get the idea of how powerful your voices can ring out. When Jesus was entering Jerusalem the crowds were cheering Hosanna. Can we give Jesus an Hosanna cheer together, all of us raise our voices and shout, Hosanna! Yes, one more time, “Hosanna to the King!” It is exciting to be together in celebration and joy and raise our voices to bring honor and praise to our King.

But, this same crowd of people who sang out together joined in anger and hate and yelled to Pilate, ‘Crucify him, crucify Him!’. How angry do we get (no matter how justified we think we are) and yell out ‘crucify him?’ You may say to yourself, “Not me, I’ll never betray my Jesus.” You may say, “I can’t be persuaded that easily, no one has control of my mind.” But, look around at advertising, at editorials, at the TV stations, people’s minds are being changed all the time. Here in Holy Week and on this Holy Friday we are reminded how much damage people can do to each other just by the power of the negative voices surrounding them.

Every time we get angry, every time we get riled up, every time we throw around the expletives, every time we hurl insults, every time we broil inside, we are condemning Jesus. No, that’s not true, preacher, we’re just airing our feelings. But, when we let one angry thought pervade our emotions, it has the chance to take hold and make us an angry person. Jesus was condemned by a bunch of angry people; people afraid of what love might do. We cannot be angry people. We can be people filled with love even all the way to the cross.

Today is the day the light disappears and the flame goes out. It is the day that we would say death has won. But, we know the truth. We know that even in the condemnation of Jesus-as we are haunted by the shadows, the light will come, the light of redemption will reign. 

It’s never too late to let love win. Amen,

Community Pastors
Eastern Shore of Virginia

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